This invention relates to the field of hand tools, and more specifically to implements for manually removing staples from stapled materials or documents.
During the early 20th Century, papers, fabrics and other laminar materials or documents were fastened together by sharply pointed pins, very much like “straight pins” currently used by tailors. The document pins generally were elongated, with one end bent to form a blunt pushing surface. When pinning papers or other materials, a user would employ the finger or thumb of one hand to press against the blunt pushing surface, while using finger tips of the other hand to guide the sharply pointed end of the pin in a double pass through the layers to be attached. Injuries from this procedure were common, and often to the extent that blood spots would appear on important documents.
Years later, mechanical staplers were developed, thus putting an end to the hazardous pinning method. Table model staplers were popular for decades, soon to be joined by smaller hand-wielded versions. More recently, stapling is most often performed automatically by auxiliary stapling units mounted on high volume copiers. Despite advances in stapling techniques, staple-related injuries have continued. Such injuries are no longer brought about in the stapling process, but rather occur during subsequent un-stapling.
The removal of staples from documents and other materials was often performed by hand, in the early years by force of tough thumbnails and by the sharp pointed blades of a pocketknives or letter openers. Naturally, these-techniques-induced injuries, as well. In the past quarter century or longer, special staple pullers were developed. These generally were of a hand tool variety, with a wedging blade to lift the staple.
Blade type staple removers are constructed simply by machining and angling a piece of metal into a blade or prong tip such that it can fit between the embedded legs of a staple where it is binding documents or materials. The staple is removed by grasping the device and sliding the sharp tip of the blade underneath the staple and rocking it out or simply pushing the blade further and further between the embedded legs until a thick portion of the blade displaces the staple from its binding position.
The force of the tool acts to pull on the staple at the front side of the documents, forcing the folded ends of the staple at the backside of the documents to unbend and exit from staple holes which were generated in the initial stapling process. The removed staple may fall to the desktop or floor, it may cling to the tool, or perhaps even take flight.
Other staple removers in wide use are best described as jaw-type extractors, wherein hinged jaws with curved claw-like implements are forced under a staple. As the extractor jaws are brought together by manual force, the implements cooperate to lift the staple and then push it from its clamping position. Again, the removed staples will fall, cling to the jaws or take flight.
Regardless of the tools and techniques used, a problem still exists since post-removal handling of the staple continues to cause injury. The staples, considerably deformed yet still with hazardously sharpened ends, must be plucked by hand from their new location—bound to the tool itself, scattered on the desktop, or lurking in the carpet (threatening damage to vacuum cleaners or stockings) or on the clothing of the user (threatening skin injuries and damaged clothing). Thus, a century or more of stapling technology has done little to eradicate these annoying office injuries. The broken, jammed or clinging staple can cause painful damage to the user's fingers and damage to the device itself, as well as to the documents or materials to which the staple is attached.
The prior art is filled with proposed solutions to stapling problems, but none has successfully addressed the two main issues, namely the device's effectiveness with respect to the removal and/or collection of staples, and the safety of the user performing these processes. For example, the staple remover described by Crutchfield in U.S. Pat. No. 5,090,663 suggests a blade type staple remover that provides a staple storage magazine. The magazine is in fact a gap between upper and lower prongs where removed staples are accumulated as they are removed. In this position, the user is exposed to the staples. And to remove the staples, the user must grasp the deformed staples between thumb and index finger and forcefully pull them from their wedged position in the magazine. Viel, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,625,482, discusses another blade type staple remover where staple collection is addressed. However, the removed staples pulled from the bound papers by a removal bar, must follow an uncontrolled pathway to the collection chamber, face high potential for being dropped or jamming the chamber entrance.
Thus, because of design flaws the currently available blade-type staple removers fall short of successfully addressing staple collection challenges. The object of the present invention is to solve current problems in removed staple collection, particularly where blade-type removers are employed. A further object is to provide a staple remover that successfully removes staples without allowing them to cling to, or become jammed in, the papers or the staple remover itself.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a guard or shield to prevent staples from being projected or propelled throughout the work area, littering the workplace and endangering users. The guard or shield actually controls the movement of removed staples along a confined pathway to storage. Another object is to provide a staple remover that removes staples and stores them within the body of the remover until the storage area is emptied. Yet another object is to provide a staple remover that can be readily opened into two halves in order to grant access to the inside of the device.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a staple remover which is inexpensive, easy to use, and readily manufactured from metal, wood, plastic, or a combination of two or more of these materials. Other objects, features, and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent upon consideration of the following full description and the appended claims, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals designate corresponding elements in the various figures.